Lomachenko won gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He avenged his 2007 World Championship defeat by Selimov in the first round. Lomachenko beat his five opponents by an astonishing 58-13 on the way to his first gold medal, and was subsequently named the outstanding boxer for the tournament and awarded the Val Barker Trophy.

After winning the second gold medal, Lomachenko made the decision to turn pro. After meeting with several fight promoters, Lomachenko signed a contract to fight for Top Rank. Lomachenko made his professional debut in United States 12 October 2013 as part of the undercard to the Timothy Bradley vs. Juan Manuel Marquez main event defeating Mexican fighter José Ramirez with a fourth round knockout.[3]

Lomachenko's bid to make history by winning a world championship in his second fight and break Saensak Muangsurin's record ended in failure. He challenged Orlando Salido for the featherweight World Boxing Organization's title. However, Lomachenko shied from engaging Salido throughout most of the fight, something that his opponent exploited. A late surge, which saw him injure Salido in the final round, was unable to change the final result as Salido won via twelfth round split decision.

Lomachenko made his first title defense against mandatory challenger Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo of Thailand. This fight took place on the undercard of the Pacquiao vs. Algieri on HBO PPV bout. Lomachenko handled his opponent easily hurting him a few times and then scoring a knock down at the end of the fourth round. Then in the seventh round Lomachenko stopped using his left hand which later was confirmed that he injured it. So going forward from the seventh Lomachenko was using only one hand. Lomachenko went on to win a UD with the scores of 120-107 on all three of the judges scorecards.